


Songbird Battle Network: Bootstrap

by Valentine20xx



Series: Rockman EXE: Songbird Battle Network [1]
Category: Mighty No. 9 (Video Game), Rockman.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network
Genre: F/M, Mayl as a Navi, Mighty No. 9's Call as a Navi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2020-09-02 07:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20272294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine20xx/pseuds/Valentine20xx
Summary: A collection of short stories setting up the various characters that are original to the Songbird universe, as a historical record of the time from LONG before Megaman.EXE ever existed, leading up to when Sonnet died...





	1. The Early Days Of The Network

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Rockman Battle Network, Megaman NT Warrior and all related trademarks © Capcom. Call © Level-5 Comcept/Intl Creates. Elements like the Songbirds and all other unique characters to this fanfiction universe are not covered by this copyright. Sonnet is based on artwork by Empty (MT), and used within fair use guidelines.
> 
> The Bootstrap is a set of stories detailing particular parts of Songbird lore, as a 'bootstrap' introduction to the fan universe. These will lead into the first chapter, and I will post these alongside Songbird.  
Several things early on in this story will not make sense, and some more will seem to contradict themselves. However, I will stress this. Everything has a reason, and all the contradictions are intentional. Part of this is that some characters have more than one identity within the narrative, and others will have their identity hidden or changed in specific ways.  
As an aside, any resemblance to Zero with Protoman is seemingly more and more intentional by Capcom, and the use of jokes normally used with Zero by several characters is as well. Zero personally does have a problem with looking more and more feminine the more recent the design is.  
And that's BEFORE we get into the ZX Series. They just gave up there and did a girl who dressed up in Zero's armour, and let the lampshade hang itself.  
I will state that Call and characters based on Mighty No 9 concepts will have names based on communication and transmission, while anyone based on Rockman concepts will have a name with '-Man' at the end or will be named outright after a musical term.

_University Of California (UCLA), ARPANET, 29th October, 1969  
_

To call the setup they were using crude was an exaggeration. The transfer programs were only a few revisions old, most of them being staff who had worked on the recently successful tests using the NLS. This was nothing like that hugely restrictive environment. If this worked, real multi-user networking could start soon.  
Research programs and military programs interacted with each other in the crude setup, moving exposed cabling out of the way of the transfer line and doing final checks as the user prepared the test, which showed up on a display as five letters… L-O-G-I-N. One of the programs putting a sixth indicator below the five, which would flash up 'Successful' for the programs, but not the user, if all five letters lit.  
Thankfully, the program in question was already doing transfer duties, so wasn't going to get demoted any further.  
Two programs watched the chaos, one having the appearance of a female scientist, a pair of oversized glasses perched on her nose, a completely pointless clipboard in one hand, stood next to a hulking program that had the appearance of a similarly stereotypical career officer, a cigar perched in his mouth, digital smoke curling from it, which he removed from his mouth purely to speak, and sometimes to gesture with it.  
"OK, You maggots! You five men have a simple job. You will be given a single character of a very simple message to deliver!" He snapped, playing the role he'd been textured for, "If you fail to deliver it, you will likely be out of a job! Hell, I'll decompile you just for being incompetent!"  
"Ahem, As my colleague so… politely put it, right now, You are our only hope for success," The science program stated, cleaning her glasses as she seemingly ignored his loud bravado, while the other program just nodded, "This is not like current protocols. This is a new and innovative method of transmission. For this reason, each of you will move across one at a time, and a simple one-byte signal will tell us when to send the next one. This signal is sent by the signal carrier itself, and cannot break down... We hope."  
"If more than half of you get across, That will be a mission success. If the signal carrier fails, and you all end up falling to your death… You will be sorely missed, and whoever caused the failure will be at the front of the NEXT bright idea someone has to get data between two unconnected systems..." The military program stated, with the attitude that meant he barely meant it, "Now, the first of you get going, or one of you will be pulling double duty, since I shot the slacker!"  
"Officer-san, Can you please not threaten the applets?" The science program stated, "He's only joking... I hope,"

In the real world, no-one knew of those two programs, only watching as the 'Hello World' message that would usher in a new form of communication began to type, cheering even as the signal cut out with only a few letters sent. The military officers who were watching it intently smiled. This was ground-breaking. They had proven that, in the future, two bases, completely isolated from each other, could get messages almost instantly. The proof-of-concept was successful. Now they just needed to complete this innovative new networking solution...

In the digital world, the science program face-palmed as her colleague put away his gun, the program that had tripped and dropped his data packet no longer moving.  
"I warned them..." He stated, while the science program checked with UCLA over whether or not the test was successful.  
"I wish to announce one thing though," The science program declared, as she tapped something out, for the sixth indicator, despite the failure of the prompt, to light up as 'Successful'. The researchers had considered even the partial message to be Proof-Of-Concept. They both headed off to their own parts of the UCLA mainframe.  
Over the following uptime, that area would be full of science programs studying every single last part of that message transmission, and what went wrong that caused that first program to trip, as well as streamlining the process. Within a few years, hopefully, there would be a very real communications network, and mainframes would meet their colleagues on other mainframes...  
Meanwhile, the military program and the science program collaborated on a few other things, including some mutually beneficial arrangements.

_**The 1970's  
**__Internet BBS Network Transfer Node 93_  
"Welcome to Node 93, You are 10th in the queue," Call stated, using the Bored Receptionist Tone 1 sample set, to the transfer program that had just arrived. In the years since ARPANET had formed, that simple and crude laboratory with the two overseers had disappeared, and the location was designated as Node 0. Last Call had heard, they'd compiled their first child, and what happened after that was duly classified. Once the transfer program arrived at her desk, she looked across at him, loading hospitality program C.  
"Please state the purpose of your visit to this node, clearly and confidently," She stated, using Bored Receptionist Tone 4, adding, as an aside, "The last idiot who transposed a number halfway down their route hasn't been seen since. The user had to get a new modem because it ended up bricked by the lost carrier signal..."  
"I'm transferring data to 1-928-9837," He stated, Call looking through the list of bulletin boards, locating the correct route, and cueing up a transfer to the next node on that line's carrier signal.  
"Your gate number is 4. Please make sure to verify your data with the Gate Admin. Transfer of viral data is an offence punishable by summary deletion..." Call stated, transitioning to Bored Receptionist Tone 9, as she snapped, "NEXT!"  
She sighed. The only difference between the system when the earlier applications walked this area was that the walkways around the rim of the room were constantly staffed by military-grade security programs, the same walkways being removed slowly with firmware updates. When she looked towards the ceiling, the carrier signals for the multiple gates that she oversaw glowed as the simple diagnostic messages were piped between the nodes. She then frowned as one of the signals went red. A lost packet. On her network line.  
"We are sorry for the lost data packet, but promise that we will endeavour to discover where the transfer program who dropped it went, and send them back to collect the replacement packet if needed… Your error correction rating should be able to compensate," She dictated, using Helpful Receptionist Tone 3, putting her terminal into LAN mode, and locating the program. Tapping her wrist to call up her protocol, she connected to the program.  
"Please notify Node 82 that the route you went down was incorrectly configured," She stated, changing to Tone 5, "Did you keep hold of the packet?… Good… Tell Baud that if she screws up her gate settings again, I'll personally come up there and remind her!"  
A short time later, the carrier signal returned to a soothing green, and she had a message from Baud apologizing for the mistake. A few more dropped packets, and a dozen messages processed later, she headed down the dedicated line towards Baud's terminal and clouted the young girl around the back of the head, and put her terminal in testing mode, with her monitoring it. Maybe, just maybe, Baud would learn. But then she'd have no reason to visit her cousin. Admittedly, some update cycles, she would rather not have a cousin.

_**The 1980's  
**__Network District 93_  
The compiling process finished, a reddish-pink haired program exiting the compiler alongside several other programs that had just been finished at the development hub. She ran her hands through her hair as she smiled up at the applet that handled the assignment process, collecting the data block she was offered. Up in a area far above her, Call worked tirelessly to ensure the programs below got to where they were meant to be.l  
"Welcome, new program. Here is your current IP address and your MAC address. You shall be expected to assist with a recently developed musical composition program, Melody," A basic program stated, as a dark haired program waved at her, "You may be required to send data between computers, so please remember your IP address. You cannot return to your home system without it!"  
"Thank you, I'll do my best!" She declared, as she considered her version number…

_ **Sonnet v1.0** _


	2. Roll Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This occurs straight after Bootstrap File 1. This is also the origin for the ‘music studio’ that appears in the main story, and explains the roles of some of the original characters. And no, I'm not killing Call off.
> 
> And Melody is _not_ an original character, but a different slant on a existing one. Clue is to think what she does for a living...

“Welcome to District 93, Sonnet!” Melody announced, taking her into the music studio that would be her home, “Our local transfer admin is Call, she’s been around for practically forever, but she looks like someone only compiled a few years ago...”

“Yo!” A voice stated, for Sonnet to notice a girl with the configuration of a transfer program, “The name’s Riff. You want something sent LAN or WAN… The District has broadband, so…”

“She gets the point...” Melody snapped, looking towards Sonnet, “You get settled, and we’ll look into your ideal configuration later...”

A short time later, Sonnet was lying on her bed, reading the local network messages. The district’s main user was a nice man, Dr. Thomas Wright, and he was especially fond of music, which meant a lot of programs ended up with internal names based around musical terms. Tapping her protocol, it collapsed into it’s bracelet form, and she looked out over the system that was her home. It was great to be alive during the golden age of the network. She looked towards the imposing form of the Browser, which was, to many applets, the core of the machine...

The following update cycle saw her encounter a blond-haired program, who was humming to herself as she was editing some music on her protocol’s terminal mode, before looking towards Melody and Sonnet.

“Oh, sorry… It’s not User level work, it’s a hobby… Wouldn’t want any of this to get into the Userland kernel,” She explained, “Oh, right, The name’s Roll.”

“Well, My name’s Sonnet, and this is Melody, the main executable for this application...” Sonnet explained, “The only other program is The Rift...”

“My name’s Riff!” Roll heard, Sonnet stepping to one side as Riff landed roughly where she was standing, “Sorry, Sonnet, Didn’t mean to almost land on you...”

“You never do… Anyway, Roll, She’s the transfer program, but, because we have an industrial broadband line, she’s also a bit odd. Well, Most transfers do not involve giving Call heart attacks because you bypass the carrier signal and just jump directly into the data stream...” Melody began, only for a program, most likely the aforementioned Call, stormed into the application space. Sonnet now understood what was meant about her looking young. She almost looked like Roll’s sister.

“RIFF! Do you understand things like going from Point A to Point B?” Call asked, “Thankfully, Dr. Wright wasn’t working on kernel-level tasks, or your little stunt would cause a noticeable reaction...”

“Never let the user see your code, I know, I know...” Riff sighed, her icon, of all things, chirping, “Anyway, My dear call girl, I’ve got a waveform to send...”

Call glared as her own icon beeped to confirm the transfer request, which she managed to process shortly before Riff ran straight off the nearest data pathway. Roll snickered, before restoring her composure.

“The name’s Roll… I’ve just transferred here from District 87.” She stated, handing her protocol’s icon form to Call, who slotted it into the correct spot on her own protocol’s terminal, taking it back once it had been verified, “I’m a diagnostics program mainly, but...”

“Let me guess, you’re hoping for assignment to this application?” Melody offered, “Well, keep your code out of the way, and you can bunk with Sonnet,”

“We have enough diagnostic and virus busting programs already, so Melody’s offer is acceptable,” Call offered, “If the User notices your program though, I’m not going to lie to him… Admittedly, in most industrial systems with programs like Melody on them have the diagnostic programs bunking with practically anyone with file space...”

“How is this an industrial system?” Roll asked, “All I got told was my new IP and MAC address...”

“Baud...” Everyone stated as one, before Call stated, with an exasperation born of long suffering, “My cousin Baud handles District 87. Sheesh, We’re a double-number, same as her, you should have got the talk,”

“Single numbers are the old ARPANET nodes, now servicing hundreds of connections a cycle… They’re military, through and through. District 1 to 9 pretty much coincide with the main military bases,” Call began, Sonnet stepping in.

“Districts from 10 to 99 are mostly classified as ‘industrial’, but also are usually where scientists are involved in what is going on. The terminal we’re working in is owned by Dr. Thomas Wright,” Sonnet continued, Call checking something.

“I was sure his terminal was in District 3...” Call muttered, checking her protocol, “You learn something new every day. Thomas Wright is one of the people who are working on pioneering work with a new protocol...”

She looked round, trying to be discreet.

“Let’s just say that the higher ups are interested in it, since it would potentially allow programs to show their true protocols...” Call stated, “Mostly diagnostic protocol programs, like Roll, but it could extend to other programs being able to interact with the user 1 to 1.”

“And you’re likely in the know since you have a transmission protocol...” Roll guessed, “I was wondering why there’s been an increase in diagnostic protocols up and down the global network traffic...”

“Because they’re likely planning to bring you in for a renderer upgrade in the near future...” Riff stated as she reappeared, “Districts 1 to 9 are inaccessible, 10 to 19 will be switching to new protocols within the next few update cycles...”

Call put her hand to her ear as her protocol beeped, and she frowned.

“Got a visitor in the old node room...” Call stated, “This might be the last time we meet, but, if you ever drop into one of the old node rooms, call me...”

That was the last time they saw Call. Within a few update cycles, the District system came to be known as the Undernet, as the protocols were simplified down to just using the Icon mode, and many programs were lost in the rapid expansion of the new faster network. One of them that lost their job were the transmission programs, high speed transfer programs like Riff taking over from them completely. But, to the user, nothing really changed, the modems that were the workplace of Baud and Call once binned as their software was declared obsolete.

Within a few update cycles, they all found themselves leaving Melody, Roll comforting her when she was told her music studio was being uninstalled, mirroring it on her terminal. Maybe, one day, they’d be able to meet again at the old music studio, and get it running with the new system. What none of them thought about was the name of the application they’d all been installed on, and was now preserved by them...

_Songbird._


	3. Bass Is Not A Fish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a extract from data gleaned from the last week of activation for Sonnet. No-one knows what caused it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here’s the final chapter of the Bootstrap. Introducing Bass and some other characters who’ll be important later. I will pardon any terrible German. And if someone asks, put translations in the end notes.

Far away, a young boy scowled at the combat training applet he was meant to be training with. "But, Father..." He moaned, for a man in a lab coat to appear in a floating window. "Was ist es, Bass?" The man to ask. The young boy sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "My name is Forte, Father, and I don't know why I'm being trained to fight... Soprano isn't, and she's only a hundred builds younger than me!"

"Du wirst mein Meisterwerk, Bass werden. Sie müssen lernen zu kämpfen, so dass Sie diese erbärmliche Programme von meinem Rivalen zusammengestellt zerstören kann." His father said, Forte sighing. He didn't want to be anyone's masterpiece, and he definitely didn't want to terminate other people's work.

"I'm outta here! Gospel! Here boy!" He said, a small purple wolf applet running into the room and licking his owner's face as he bent down, "Get Soprano and we'll go see the 'evil' programs that Father keeps telling me to destroy."

"Holen Sie sich zurück! Halt! Stop! Sie verräterische kleine Göre! Ich werde dekompilieren, wenn Sie nicht wieder tun, um hier nun mit der rechten!" The man ranted, Forte blowing a raspberry. The man was as likely to decompile him as Soprano was likely to fire a weapon at non-corrupt data. Correction… Soprano was likely to fire a weapon _period._

"Welcome to Network Transfer Node 293, How may I... Erk." The administrative applet said, as she saw who was stood in front of her, "My my, Forte and Soprano. Has your father ordered you to delete me?"

"No, I don't go out to delete things WITH my sister present." He said, raising his buster and blasting an errant corrupted construction applet, "I just invariably end up doing so. Has someone figured out why over half the Mets on the network are infected with viruses?"

"Probably the fact they're one of the few applets who spend all their time on the network." A girl in a white and pink outfit, a young tiger applet at her side, offered, "Hi, My name's Sonnet. Cute wolf, suits you well."

"Gospel isn't cute. He's an engine of mass destruction just waiting to strike. Now, Reggae, That's cute. Especially when you see my sister trying to fly with it." Forte said, for Soprano to sniffle.

"You meanie!" She snapped, "Maybe I'll not summon Reggae next time you almost drop through a corrupted gateway..."

He knew she was lying. It was a hard-coded protocol in older programs to tease the younger ones.

"Still, What are two notorious combat applets doing at a transfer node? I'm delivering some new music sheets for one of my friends on the Light system." Sonnet said, for Forte to smile.

"My sister is not notorious. She’s never fired a weapon… and definitely has never done anything in real anger,” Forte stated, before offering, “Need an escort? That kitten doesn't look like it is able to fight a Met, but my wolf has a really nasty bark…"

"Sure, but I think Gospel would make a terrible escort. And he's a lot less cute than you are." Sonnet said, smirking as she got her gate number and headed off before he could answer.

"Dammit! Soprano, Did you get her gate number?" Forte snapped.

"Forte and Soprano, Sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S..." Soprano sang, for him to glare, and she replied, "No, I was too busy watching her flirt with you."

"Why do I even try?" Forte snapped, for him to shrug and then get a random gate number so he could go delete Mets for the rest of the day, Soprano summoning a small black bird-shaped applet that turned into a jetpack as it reached her and following him. He would get one of them killed one of these days...

Neither of them noticed Sonnet look back at her gate, noticing them. And he was right. Soprano using Reggae was cuter than Gospel, but only due to the fact the whole image was cute in it’s own way. Once she arrived at the right node cluster of the fledgling community that had replaced the application layer, she noticed a young construction applet leaving Roll’s BBS, chuckling as she scanned his app ID. Gutsman had got his build updated again. She then headed inside with the music.

Roll’s BBS was a lot less organized than Songbird, because there wasn’t enough data space to uncompress Melody’s old program. She only had enough space for a synthesizer and a mixing desk, which she was sat near. She handed Roll the MIDI file, for her to smile.

"So, What were you doing with the latest revision of Gutsman?" She called out to her friend.

"He's my boyfriend, OK? My user has already told me to leave him be... He's too basic a program, and I should pick a proper applet for a boyfriend, like Rock from the Hikari sub-net," Roll said, sighing while Sonnet comforted her, "I wish I had you for a user, Sonnet. You're a great singer, you understand me..."

“I’d encourage your music interests, rather than...” Sonnet began, pointing to the debug reports on a table, “I’d not tell you to dump Gutsman. Yes, they have some very simple AI subroutines, only really able to control the Mets, but that doesn’t make them dumb or basic...”

She removed her helmet, running her hand through her hair. “Oh yes, I had an interesting encounter. I met up with Forte and Soprano when my trace route went through the Wily sub-net...”

"Yeah, right... Sonnet, The day someone faces down those two and comes away without a core dump routine being needed, the net will hang..." Roll said.

“And if someone faced them down, chatted up Forte and watched his kid sister weave about like a drunken fairy?” Soprano offered.

"The day you become Forte's girlfriend, and no-one gets killed in the process, I'll officially change my application type to a singing applet." Roll decided, the two of them shaking on it, before she left.

A few days later, Roll was working at the hospital, dealing with a outbreak of minor viruses in the maternity ward, when Sonnet called her. "You forgot your lunch!" She stated.

"See if you can get up here and help me with these viruses while you're at it..." Roll offered. A few minutes later, there was a crash in the intensive care unit of the ward, as they tried to save a newborn baby's life. The baby survived, barely, but Roll knew, when she checked the logs later, the system crash had been Sonnet's transfer into the maternity ward's sub-net colliding with the virus outbreak.

In the middle of the crashed gateway, Forte was depicted frozen defending one of the gates of the devastated transfer node, protecting Sonnet, who stood frozen, half-transferred, in the doorway that lead to where Roll had been.

Back at the Wily subnet, Soprano waited with Reggae, Gospel and Sonata, not wanting to hear her programmer talk about how he'd made a backup and would bring back her brother. She knew that this 'Bass' program wouldn't be Forte. He was frozen in a moment when the net hung...

And she vowed, that day, she'd learn what really caused that hung process...

No-one realised that, due to where Sonnet had been, her survival was guaranteed...

_After that day, no-one heard of the Soprano applet, or of the Reggae and Sonata sub-applets that were the expansion modules for Soprano and Sonnet. Rumours about Gospel circulated as much as information about sightings of Sonnet or Bass. For all intents and purposes, Soprano vanished._


End file.
